A Sticky Situation

We were recently sent the 'First Words' Sticker Activity Book by Top That! to review. I'll admit to opening it and thinking "Really? He's two!" However that opinion quickly changed when I opened it, examined the pages and showed it to The Boy; he was captivated!

My reservations centred around the fact that sticker books often have flimsy pages with a matt finish that mean once the sticker is put down (often in the wrong place the first time), that's it it's stuck there. You can't peel it back off to move it, and if you try the stickers are so thin, they rip and you have a distressed child.

That is not the case with this gorgeous activity book. The pages are thick and glossy which means that stickers can be peeled back off and realigned. The stickers are also a really good quality and easy to hold. The Boy has gone back a few times since he first did one of the pages and rearranged the stickers, well over a week later, with no problem.

'First Words' tells the story of David and Lizzie who live in a house with their mum and dad. The book introduces different aspects of David and Lizzie's homelife from the rooms in their house to their routines. You can dress them, give them their breakfast in the kitchen, follow them on a walk to the park or when they go shopping, when they play with their toys,go to the countryside, and then go to bed. The pages that illustrate each of these everyday occurences are beautifully drawn with bright colours and attractive designs. The additional bit that I like, and I think the first time that I've seen it, is that the colours around each of the stickers matches the section of the page where they are meant to go perfectly. Too often the stickers are surrounded by white which makes them stick out like a sore thumb.

This is part of a series of books from Top That! which is aimed at children three years old and over, other titles included are 'Colours', 'Counting' and 'Shapes', and all four support the Foundation Phase and National Curriculum learning objectives (as a primary school teacher I can see how these would support his learning). One of the features of the book is that the words being introduced are also printed in the book allowing the reader to over-write and practise his/her writing skills. Obviously this is the area where The Boy has not been able to fully enjoy the book, but it's not a problem because in the future he will be able to and it hasn't hampered his enjoyment of the book. There are other lovely activities like dot-dot, tick-lists, drawing areas and colourings.

The Sticker Activity Books normally retails for £4.99 but at the moment they are on offer for £4.49. I shall definitely be popping over and buying the other titles in the series (is it too early to think of Christmas presents?)

Another top-tip (stolen borrowed from Damian Johnson) is to remove the surrounding and unnecessary sticky; it makes it so much easier for their little fingers to get the stickers off.

We were provided with this book free of charge for the purpose of this review. My opinion is, as always, honest.